Xin Nian Kuai Le!! It's the Year of the Pig!

That's "Happy (Chinese) New Year!" in Mandarin. Today is officially the new year in the Chinese lunar calendar.

I've been a little confused because the children's books we've read all say "Gung Hay Fat Choy!", but Miyah's also learned "Xin Nian Kuai Le" in Chinese school. Well I figured out that they mean two different hings and I guess one is Cantonese (spoken in southern China) and one is Mandarin.



Cantonese:
Gung Hay Fat Choy! (may prosperity be with you)

Mandarin:
Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Happy New Year)

We had a lot of fun this year as Miyah actually understands and can participate in the traditions a bit more!

Pat's mom was anxious to see the grandkids so she came down for a long weekend. We always enjoy her visits, but we missed "Bumpa" (grandpa) this time. It was a cold weekend and hanging around the house playing games seemed just right.

Saturday afternoon we were out shopping, so we decided to make our Chinese New Year dinner tonight. What a production! I think it would have helped if I knew what I was doing. When you only make these dishes once a year (maybe three times total now), it's hard to remember how to do everything. We made dumplings, spring rolls, and long noodles. I think it took us well over three hours to make our little dinner. But it was fun and pretty good, if I do say so myself! We may opt for Chinese take out next year though just to save on the prep and clean up time...phew! We also ate fortune cookies, ice cream (hey, the Chinese invented it), the kids got their red envelopes, and we had a mini fireworks display. I'll post some photos later tonight or tomorrow.

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Okay, now for some possibly good China travel news! Our agency sent us our travel packet last week with a letter stating that we MAY POSSIBLY travel by March 8th (March 6th for us since we'll be taking a few extra days in Beijing)!! Woohooo!!! The possibilty is so exciting. I literally cried when I read that. We would have to get travel approval in the next couple of days to be able to travel so soon.
That's...like...a little more than two weeks away!!!!

It's more probable that we won't travel until the end of March. Either way it really is good news that we should travel before April.

We'll keep you posted.

We've applied for our visas and should be ready to go whenever we get approval. I have almost everything we need to pack except our clothes which will have to be packed just days beforehand anyway. My kids and husband laugh at me because I've been buying things for the trip for over a month now. It's a good thing, because packing/collecting takes time...especially for 6 people for 2 1/2 weeks in China.